Lousy stinking winner

My bet proved to be a miserable, lousy, stinking winner. England lost in a penalty shootout, but only after having a completely clean goal disallowed in the last minute of normal time. For American readers, imagine a last-second playoff-winning touchdown pass struck off by a call for a non-existent offensive pass interference penalty. For poker-playing readers (!) imagine you’re heads-up at the end of a no-limit tournament and get dealt Aces. The flop comes AAK and your opponent immediately moves all in. As you prepare to call the dealer picks up your card protector, grabs your cards and mucks your hand.

Pretty bloody sickening.

Luckily I don’t invest too much emotional capital in things over which I have no control, so I was swiftly onto the tables where I played a total of perhaps three hours and finished almost exactly even. Down two dollars, if you must know.

First up I played a $10 multi with 153 entrants. I followed a familiar pattern of playing well and then making one stupid move. Early on I was very pleased with my game, especially as I finally made a good pre-flop re-raise bluff – something I have wanted to add to my game for a while. I bobbed and weaved without ever really building my stack, until I benefited from a boneheaded play from an opponent to double up, which put me right in the hunt. That stack dwindled somewhat, until at the break I was in the lower half of the 48 remaining players (20 paid). My stack of just over 2000 equated to seven big blinds and I decided I was in double-up mode. However, I picked a completely terrible spot to do it, raising all-in in mid-late position with Ace Jack offsuit.

The fact that I got called by AA and lost is not really the point. The point is that I was very, very unlikely to get called by a worse hand, which leaves me really only hoping to pick up the blinds – which was not what I was seeking to do. 40th, no cash, live and learn. I am really struggling with the balance between trying not to end up truly short-stacked and having the patience to pick a genuine double-through opportunity. On one hand, I want to have a shot at the top prizes and not a measly return of twice my buy-in; on the other hand, you can’t win one of the top prizes if you don’t even get into the money.

Tournaments remain very much a marginal activity for me, but I am going to win one of the fucking things if it kills me.

Cash play was okay. I dropped some dollars in a $1/$2 seven card stud game before deciding that it wasn’t the usual soft lineup. Pot Limit Omaha went pretty well, in fact very well to begin with. I was right in the zone and getting some cards too, but I finished a 90 minute session winning only $22.

Main reason for this was that I suffered a moderately bad beat when I flopped the nut straight versus two players. All the money went in on the harmless turn card, and the river paired the board. I won a tiny side pot but felt stiffed on the $99 main pot, especially upon checking the hand history later and ‘doing the math’. Of 36 possible river cards, 23 were scoopers for me, 2 ties and only 11 losers. The winner hit a two-out full house, which combined with his slim flush draw made his turn call a break-even proposition, while the other guy was simply donating. I profit by 48 of those pesky theoretical dollars each time the money goes in on the turn there.

Losing a 64-36 shot is not hair-tearing time, but it is frustrating to play well and make the right plays, but miss out on the big pot that makes or breaks a pot limit session. Especially as the bad play I mentioned from my drunken session the other night proved to be no worse than a break-even proposition (and at least I raised that pot, giving myself an extra chance to win) but I failed to get lucky like this guy.

My other action for the night was, as usual, in $10+50c heads up no limit hold ‘em. I won two out of three, for five of my last seven, and enjoyed it very much as always. I did have one lovely opponent who repeatedly folded his button, pre-flop. You could play someone like that for eight hours a day and make a living I reckon, even in $10 games! I mean, if he folds 83 offsuit on the button, while I raise with it and he (invariably) folds, how many times can he beat me? I am going to have the chip lead – and hence be one hand from winning – more often than not.

A friend of mine called me a fool for playing these games, saying it was impossible to beat the rake. I am not sure that I agree. If one is going to play heads-up, surely a one-off rake fee of 5% of your stake works out better than paying rake on multiple hands. I don’t actually care too much, since I play these mainly for excitement and hand-reading practice, but I’m pretty sure they represent a good way of playing heads up.

Enough for today. Since Iggy is on hiatus I am going to link up a poker blog that I haven’t seen listed elsewhere. Patri Friedman cashed in the WSOP ‘Big One’ this year and plays some (very) high stakes PLO. His livejournal isn’t exactly packed with poker content, but I find him an interesting guy. In fact, we swapped a few emails debating gun-control a couple of years ago. I like living in a country where, as a rule, people don’t get shot.